ICC asks PCB to submit report on Asif

Mohammed Asif returned home on Friday and apologised &quot;to the whole nation&quot; after Dubai authorities dropped a drug investigation against him

Written by NDTVSports

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Lahore:

Pakistan fast bowler Mohammed Asif apologised to the entire nation over whatever happened in Dubai and clarified that he had never used prohibited drugs.

Addressing a press conference after his meeting with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Nasim Ashraf, he said he had tested negative for use of banned drugs before the Indian Premier League and similarly also in Dubai.

Asif returned home on Friday after authorities in Dubai dropped a drug investigation case against him, ending almost three weeks of detention.

Meanwhile, International Cricket Council (ICC) has asked Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to submit a report about fast bowler Muhammad Asif.

ICC spokesman Samiul Hasan Burni said that ICC would take a decision after receiving a report from PCB.

Asif was detained June 1 after authorities allegedly found opium in his wallet as he traveled through Dubai's international airport on his way home from playing in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament.

Asif arrived in Pakistan on a flight from Dubai early on Friday and immediately proclaimed his innocence.

"I feel shame and apologise to the whole nation over what happened," he told reporters.

He said he had never used any illegal substance, and would not do so in the future.

"No banned substance was recovered from me, and all of my tests were clear," he told reporters at Lahore International Airport.

He said he was also cleared in two earlier medical tests before playing in India.

"If those tests had not been cleared, ICC would have banned me earlier," he said, referring to world cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council.

But later Friday, when Asif met with Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Nasim Ashraf, he was less defiant.

Ashraf announced on Friday that a three-member committee, chaired by the PCB's chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi, would probe Asif's case from on Monday.

In 2006, Asif and fellow paceman Shoaib Akhtar tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. The PCB initially banned the players for one and two years respectively, but the suspensions were overturned on appeal.